Grand Rapids Public Schools hires human resources director

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – The Grand Rapids Public Schools board has approved a new position to meet the district’s legal and human resources needs.

The school board on Tuesday, Jan. 22 hired native Michigander Sharron Pitts away from the nearly 55,000-student Atlanta Public Schools where she spent the past 16 years, most recently as that district’s top legal adviser and chief of staff. Pitts will be paid $115,000 yearly as the Grand Rapids district’s new executive director of human resources and legal services.

Pitts replaces Freddie Williams, the district’s former human resources director who retired a year ago this month. District officials say having someone on staff with legal experience makes sense because labor relations issues represent the bulk of the district’s legal expenses, which this year are budgeted to reach about $300,000.

“While it won’t eliminate that budget altogether, it will reduce what we’ve contracted for in the past,” said Julie Davis, the district’s interim director of business and finance. Davis estimated district taxpayers will save about two thirds of what is currently spent on legal matters.

The district will still need specialized legal counsel for matters like bond issues. District spokesman John Helmholdt said Pitts also will help shepherd outside counsel for which the district will still contract.

“In light of some of the changes in state law, we’ve had to look at everything from the use of federal funds to the collective bargaining agreement itself,” Helmholdt said. “If you look back under the previous administration there was a protracted two-and-a-half-year negotiation with the Grand Rapids Education Association.”

Helmholdt added officials expect no such delay this time around despite complaints things are moving too slowly from union leaders representing the district’s more than 1,500 teachers and other classroom professionals during ongoing negotiations. Those district staffers have worked without a contract since Aug. 24 when the former one-year deal expired.

Helmholdt said talks are likely to resume next week after the school board met last week in closed session to discuss issues reportedly centering around wages and class size. He added the two sides are making progress, with talks this go-round much calmer than under the former administration.

“We’re still at the table,” he said. “This is much different than in the past.”